Canada and Passchendaele...

[phil andrade]

At Tyne Cot, fewer than one thousand Canadians are buried or commemorated. What of the thousands of others who died in the late October/ November 1917 fighting ?

Menin Gate missing allude to those before mid August, 1917, don't they ?

There must be another memorial, or cemeteries, where these missing Canadian dead are buried or commemorated. I would have assumed that Tyne Cot, closest to Passchendaele, was bound to be the right place.

With casualties approaching sixteen thousand at Passchendaele, the Canadian Corps presumably lost nearly five thousand dead.

Where are they ?

Phil (PJA)

[Piorun]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele_Memorial

[Aurel Sercu]

The rule (cut off date) of mid August 1917 for the Menin Gate Memorial does not apply to Canadian troops.

Aurel

[Broznitsky]

Of the men I've studied who died during Passchendaele and have no known grave, their names are either on the Menin Gate or at Tyne Cot.

The Passchendaele Memorial does not contain names but rather commemorates the battle itself.

Peter in B.C.

[phil andrade]

Thank you.

You can forgive my confusion, I trust, when a cut off date is applied, and then, for some reason, there is an exception for Canada.

I'm tempted to ask the reason why, but don't want to push my luck !

Phil (PJA)

[Aurel Sercu]

Phil,

Canada is not the only exception. Also Australia. Maybe India and South Africa and West-Indies too ?

Somehow I think that if the cut off date was applied to these (Canada too ?) there would be no Australians on the Menin Gate ?

(And as we know : no New Zealanders on Menin Gate, Tyne Cot panels and Ploegsteert. They have their own memorials (Tyne cot, Mesen, Polygon Wood-

Aurel

[nigelcave]

Phil,

Canada is not the only exception. Also Australia. Maybe India and South Africa and West-Indies too ?

Somehow I think that if the cut off date was applied to these (Canada too ?) there would be no Australians on the Menin Gate ?

(And as we know : no New Zealanders on Menin Gate, Tyne Cot panels and Ploegsteert. They have their own memorials (Tyne cot, Mesen, Polygon Wood-

Aurel

The Menin Gate was in effect considered as an Imperial, as it were, memorial: thus all the missing of the Dominion etc nations (in Belgium) were commemorated there regardless of the cut-off date for the 'Imperials'. So, the Vimy memorial in France commemorates specifically (ie their names are inscribed there) those who fell in France with no known grave [though it also commemorates all the Canadian fallen in a generalised way); Villers Bret similarly for the Australians etc. The NZers were a separate issue, but even in this case there is a reference on the 'Gate' to where their missing in Belgium are commemorated..

The 1,000 Canadians in Tyne Cot seems reasonable when one considers how many are there who cannot be identified at all, but are simply an 'Unknown Soldier' - presumably a fair number of these were Canadians. Then there are those who are buried in, eg, Passchendaele New Mil Cemetery or who died of wounds and are buried behind the line.

By the way, the Canadians in the immediate post war period did consider having their 'national' memorial to the missing on the Ramparts at Ypres (and also, interestingly enough, at 'Hill 62') as opposed to Vimy, but this idea was soon discarded, in part because the Menin Gate was proposed as an Imperial Memorial and in part because of the attractions of Vimy, for a variety of reasons. Currie, with considerable justification, favoured the memorial to be at Bourlon Wood.